Wait for Eternity
by Nitesh
Summary: [Once On This Island] After Ti Moune dies, Papa Ge ponders the young girl's fate and his relationship towards a particular Goddess of Love.


**_Yes... this is my second 'Once On This Island' fic. This time it's about Papa Ge and Erzulie, my second favorite characters (after Tonton, of course). Well, it didn't turn out at all like I expected it to be, but I like it anyway._**

_**Enjoy.**_

Wait for Eternity

They would not have been material people, had they had been mortal. Nor were they material Gods. They preferred the openness of the woodlands, and vastness of the sea, and the extraordinary power of the winds to be their homes. But even the Gods need shelter, a place to call 'their own', and laugh, for the world was theirs. It was there that they spend their time together, found ways around hardships together, in this place, this magical home that was seldom stumbled across by mortals. Asaka and Agwe made sure of this.

The house of the Gods was a massive structure with golden doors and a roof that was build from the same essence of the sky and the stars. In this building was a hall, and across from the hall five rooms. All over the hall were great murals that Asaka, Erzulie, Agwe, and Papa Ge had painted of the flow of time on the Island. The rooms, set across from one another with one at the end of the hall, were silent at the moment. One was for each God, seldom used but always there. Each room was a territory, and no God dared look into another's room.

The last room was an enormous room, marble like the others. Tapestries and other things lined the walls, and exotic rugs lay on the floor. A common room, spotless and shiny, as if someone had been scrubbing at it for hours. It was not used as much as the other rooms, surprisingly.

But not-so-surprisingly, the house was seldom used for anything other then antisocial fits.

And this was why it was so suddenly populated the night Ti Moune died.

The large golden doors swung open with terrifying force and rebounded off the mural walls with a resounding crack. Papa Ge did not bother to shut them, and angrily stomped through the hall until he turned on his heel and entered his room, closing the door with a flick of his wrist.

He had been sure to be ahead of Erzulie. He didn't want to see her face right now, he didn't want to see any of their faces. But he saw anyway. He had been with them an eternity, of course. He knew them all well enough by now.

Asaka's face would have been bloodless, and her eyes would be wide and haunting. She was the most naive out of all of the Gods, and though she was wise and experienced then any human, sometimes things did tend to... shock her. It was indecent that any God would behave such, and Papa Ge picked on her for it. Agwe had always defended her though, defended her like a protective older brother over a little sister and her wild notions of life.

Agwe, yes. He would almost certainly be comforting Asaka somehow. He could imagine them there, watching as Ti Moune's body grew colder, and Agwe wrapping an arm around her shoulders, whispering softly, giving her a shoulder to cry on. He would have been sorrowful too, but in his own way, a way that made Papa Ge think of requiem songs haunting tunes over the heads of the peasants of Ti Moune's village, in the form of raindrops or fog.

And Erzulie...

He took off his hat, furious at himself, and flung it into a corner. The white, wide-brimmed hat spun and vanished as soon as it hit the wall. A chair appeared, crafted out of wood and vines that twisted around the edges, and he slumped into it, feeling as low as a mortal.

Erzulie would be crying.

He propped his chin up against a hand and stared moodily into the corner. Yes, she would be crying- silver tears that would fill her pale blue eyes and leave them overbright. But she would be sobbing in the powerful way that she always had had, that made Agwe never need to say a word to her in comfort. The thought of it made him shudder, and cast his eyes down as if she had just been standing in front of him. She could cry and cry and cry but never make a sound, never move clumsily to paw away a tear like Asaka would. She was stronger then Agwe- Papa Ge didn't know why. She just was.

A sigh escaped his lips before he could even register it probably.

A second and a half later, it did. And when it did click in his brain, he jerked bolt upright in his chair as if he had been struck by lightning. _Oh no, _he thought to himself. _I am **not** feeling bad about this. Erzulie knew **exactly** what she was getting that girl into._

_It's not my fault she didn't get the blasted fairy tale ending that she hoped for. _He drummed his fingers against the side of his face.

_She knew what she was bargaining with. A human life. That's what I play with, just like she works with love. Those are what we cashed in. She knew as well as I did that she could have decided to kill Daniel and then herself. She was lucky she didn't get that. But that girl... she got what she... She should have stayed with her own kind. Her **own** people. It's her own fault that she-_

_It's not the girl you feel bad about._

Papa Ge froze as a small voice in the back of his mind, as quickly as it had piped up, fell silent. _Oh? Then what **do** I feel **oh so** horribly about, if at all? _Even to himself Papa Ge was bitterly sarcastic, for- if not only a small part off him- he knew that, perhaps, the creeping voice had a substantial argument to pronounce.

Almost unbidden, the face of Erzulie floated up before his eyes in smoke. Papa Ge coughed hastily, trying- and failing- to hide his shock from himself. He swiped a hand though the figure, and half of the face disappeared in an instant. The rest, including one of the eyes, gave him a sorrowful stare and vanished.

_Well now. **That** had an interesting outcome, didn't it? Why so much **animosity** between you and Erzulie?_

Papa Ge felt that this argument was getting nowhere, and was only giving him a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

_Because she's the only one worth fighting. _And it was true. Agwe would tired quickly of the constant bickerings, and Asaka's soul was too easily bruised to be much fun in a fight.

_Oh really?_ said the voce, a hint of a chortle working its way into the words. _You're sure Agwe and Asaka are nothing, are you?_

_Asaka and Agwe have each other, and I have Erzulie, _his mind snapped angrily.

A split second later, he realized what he had proclaimed, and turned- with his embarrassment- a violent shade of red. The voice tittered softly.

_No, that's... that's not what I-_

_Well, I suppose it would make sense,_ the voice laughed. _It's like one of those **horrible** romance novels. The scary, tough God of Death falls in love with the Goddess of Love... how ironic._

He ran a cool hand across his forehead, and was amazed that he had started to sweat. _Foolishness! I do not have **any** sort of feelings for that... that **woman**. _The last word was emphasized with disgust.

_So **Godly** you are! Unable to even consider the idea of love, for fear that it would ruin you reputation of being fierce! Ruin the reputation of needing no one, of being completely uncaring!_

_**Be silent!**_

And the voice did fall silent, but in a way that seemed as if it was going on it's own accord, and it's own alone. Papa Ge sat back the chair in his dark room, feeling uncomfortably as if he had just lost an argument. For Papa Ge was prideful, yes. But he was not so narrow-minded to think that he could never be wrong, even as a God.

He stood, and the chair slowly sank into the floor as he began to pace circles around the room, and finally, after a long moment, he stopped and ran a hand through his uneven black hair.

Yes. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Perhaps he did host some sort of... _caring_ towards the Goddess of Love. But that didn't _mean_ that he loved her. It was as he had said before- there were two women, and Asaka already had Agwe watching over her. Erzulie needed someone to be there for her, as well. It was only logical.

_Not, persay, that **you** need her to be there for you as well. That would be utterly **preposterous**._

The voiced seemed determined to have the last word, and Papa Ge gritted his teeth. _No, it's simply a partnership._

_If only, you great oblivious fool, it's a **friendship**._

Papa Ge's eyebrows knitted tightly together as he thought. _A friendship?_

He tapped his fingers together, trying out the word in his mind. Friendship was a silly, _mortal_ quality, but maybe that was the... relationship that Papa Ge and Erzulie had. After all, they had spent so much time together, fighting and- well, usually fighting, but there had been points where Papa Ge had made Erzulie laugh.

And it doing so it had filled him with such a warmth, such a warmth that he could not explain that he could not help smiling, albeit hesitantly, in return.

A friendship?

Maybe.

A loud slam interrupted his wildly bickering and tumbling thoughts, and even through the closed door of his room he could here the loud, exasperating voice of Asaka, who, although Papa Ge was sure he had left in a complete disarray, was now emotionally stable and back to normal.

"-probably hiding out in here because he lost his bet. He _did_ lose, didn't he, Erzulie?"

"...I believe so. I think that he knows it, too," murmured the ever-solemn Erzulie, still obviously shaken. "Love could always withstand Death..." she added, half-hesitantly. "Leave him be, Asaka. He'll be out... later."

Without consciously acknowledging it, a smile pulled at Papa Ge's lips, and he held out a hand before him, upturned. His white hat appeared, and he pulled in on his head, flicking the edge of the brim so that it hung low over his eyes.

Then he straightened his back, gave the door a practiced haughty glance, and swaggered out of the room, all thoughts of his feelings toward Erzulie put to rest in his mind- or, at least, quieted for the time being.

If the voice had been a real being, it would have sighed and shook its head as he raised his chin proudly and departed. It was a shame... although Papa Ge had acknowledged his feelings toward Erzulie, they were most certainly not friendship. What he felt for the Erzulie he was trying to avoid, in fear of the Goddess and her power.

Her power over Love.

If only he was a bit wiser, he would have understood. Why would he love the Goddess of Love? Because the Goddess of Love loved him back, and semiconsciously weaved her own charm around him.

But it was not any sort of spell that she could control, even if she had been aware of it. As she herself has said, 'Love has many powers if the Love is true'. True love could not be denied or restricted. And sometimes, it could not even be controlled once it had afflicted someone. Not even by the Goddess of Love herself.

They would understand one day.

They had eternity.

**-----------------------------------------------**

_**This is the weirdest story ever.**_

**_What is it with the 'Once On This Island' characters and not wanting to follow the original plot? At first I was like, 'ARGH Papa Ge stop being so conflicted and go and KISS her or SOMETHING' and Papa Ge's like 'GAH, NO! DENIAL!'_**

**_But I like that voice. Again. It's defiately not the same voice as was in the other one, but you know. Same idea. Oh, if you liked this, feel free to check out my other 'Once On This Island' story._**

_**Review please.**_


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